It has been a long time coming, but, the work has begun on the new plugin that aims to bring a wide range of tools to bbPress forums related to content moderation. The plugin is expected to be released early next year.
At this time, I have a preliminary list of features that will go into the Moderation plugin. Still, I expect that to change during the development. I am open to getting suggestions and incorporating them into the development process, so if you want to suggest a moderation-related feature, please leave a comment. In the past year, I have talked with many website owners about this, and I have gathered a long list of feature requests, which is the base for the upcoming plugin.
The plugin will add a new front-end page where all Moderation-related tools will go. The plugin will be able to work with Global Moderators (bbPress moderator role), and Forum Moderators (regular forum users assigned to moderation of specific forums). This panel will be able to display moderation-relevant information for each moderator and display a list of spam, pending, and trashed content. There will be user moderation tools, too, allowing global moderators to review all signed-up users and their activity. On the admin side, forum editing will be expanded with a new metabox better to handle moderators’ selection and additional forum-based settings. I will not go into too much detail, and I plan to share screenshots when they become available once the development progresses.
The plugin will also integrate tightly with GD bbPress Toolbox Pro and GD Forum Manager plugins. Toolbox plugin has a Report Post tool that is very important for having forum users report topics and replies, and now, with the Moderation plugin, these reports will be tightly integrated into the moderation process. GD Forum Manager plugin allows quick editing of content, which will be improved to better fit into the Moderation plugin. And, the Moderation plugin will also integrate with the coreActivity plugin recently released to log all sorts of moderation events into the database, providing detailed moderation logs for review to have every change logged.
With the Moderation plugin, the goal is to have moderators handle content the best they can, but there is always a possibility for the forum to get a large number of spam posts, especially if the forums are open, and to deploy the automated antispam measures, a new WordPress security plugin will be released soon that will have bbPress Antispam features (among other security-based features). More information about that will be available soon, and the plugin is expected to be released in the next two weeks.
The new plugin will be premium only; no free version will be available. This will be a huge and complex plugin, with no clear way to split features into Free and Pro. The plugin will be part of the bbPress Plugins Club. The first look at the new plugin will be available by late November, and after that, I expect to have progress reports every two weeks. If all goes as planned, the first Beta version will be available by the end of the year.
Again, let me know if you have any suggestions for the features to include, and leave the comment below.
